"Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

War on Terrorism

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Dealing with unexploded ordnance part of the daily grind for these Soldiers

By Angela Parady
121st Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo (10/16/12) - Driving across the mountainous
terrain of Kosovo with a trailer full of unexploded munitions would
make most people a little nervous. For the driver today, it’s all part
of the routine.

Of all the dangers soldiers face in Kosovo, unexploded ordnance is
the most hazardous. Identifying these UXO’s, locating them, and
properly disposing of them is crucial to the safety and security of
everyone living in Kosovo.

Soldiers from the 217th Explosives Ordnance Disposal Company,
California Army National Guard, respond to, evaluate, and dispose of
explosives here in Kosovo, one of the most heavily mined regions in the
world.

“It is very important because these hazards affect not only our
military but also the civilian population,” said Sgt. 1st Class Robert
W. Lee. “It is very important that we keep this area safe for the
civilians, as well as the military operating in the area.”

Lee is a team leader for the 217th EOD Company. He and his team
are deployed with the 16th rotation of the Kosovo Force, for the NATO
peacekeeping mission here. Since arriving in September, the 217th has
responded to more than 40 calls for suspected UXOs.

“With a UXO, the most dangerous aspect is always the unknown,”
said Lee. The difference between a UXO and a bottle cap are huge, but
when the report comes in for a suspected explosive, every case must be
handled as a worst-case scenario.

Sgt. Valeriy P. Didychenko is an EOD technician with the 217th.
Dealing with false alarms on a daily basis can make it easy to want to
start letting safety precautions slide. However, you never know what you
will find at a call, so each must be handled with the same concern and
attention to detail.

“We must always prepare for worst-case scenario,” said Didychenko,
who chose the explosives field a year and a half ago. “Always be ready.
We never get perfect information because people never know what they
are looking at. So we have to be prepared for anything.”

“It is an exciting job,” he said. “It is never the same. There is
always something unique. The danger is always out there, the adrenaline
is always pumping. You know you have a pulse.”

In Kosovo, a large issue is outdated munitions. According to Lee,
munitions expire. “They don’t expire like the milk in your fridge, or
the chow hall.”

He compared them to a meal ready to eat.

“Munitions are sort of like MRE’s. Everything has a shelf life,
and over time, need to be inspected,” he said. “They have moving parts,
there are lubricants for fuses, and over time the chemical composition
will break down. They are very similar to MREs. They should be inspected
before use and stored properly. Some will degrade faster, which is why
they have to be inspected. If they fail their inspection, they are coded
H and sent for demilitarization or destroyed by detonation.”

In Kosovo, it is often more cost effective to destroy munitions in
a safe manner, rather than ship them back to the U.S. to go through the
demilitarization process, where they are broken down, taken apart and
the reusable parts recycled for future use, Lee said.

It is important to deal with munitions properly.

“We don’t want to store them if they are near a certain expiration
date,” said Lee. “It is safer to destroy the munitions rather than
leave it laying around for someone else to find. We don’t want someone
just throwing it in a garbage disposal either. It just doesn’t work that
way.”

Any time an EOD team is working around explosives, whether it is
in a controlled training environment or during a call to the field, all
steps are taken to make sure that safety is the first and primary
concern.
Didychenko, of Helendale, Calif., said safety is always first priority, because you are putting peoples’ lives on the line.

“There are a lot of danger precautions,” he said. “You are talking
above and beyond the normal soldier safety precautions. You need to
make sure there is no one else out on the range. You want to make sure
you know how big the blast will be, what the radius is for shot
fragmentation, the blast radius. You need to set up security for the
area, the damage the blast can cause; all those things need to be taken
into consideration.”
Lee agreed. An EOD technician must handle every situation as a
worst-case scenario. All steps must be taken to mitigate safety, he
said.

EOD technicians work hard to respond to all calls to sustain the
safe and secure environment here in Kosovo. If someone finds suspected
munitions, the best thing to do is contact the Kosovo Police if you are
outside of Camp Bondsteel, or the 217th EOD if you are within the gates.

Lee, who lives in Sacramento, Calif., said “It is just not safe to
handle munitions unless you have been properly trained. You don’t know
what state it is in, whether it was fired, but then misfired, or if
someone was trying to get rid of it, and just placed it there. Leave it
to us.”

Didychenko said to make sure you have some basic information when you call.

“The most crucial information we need, is the location,” he said.
“That is the most important part, as specific as you can, because if you
say it is in a field, we don’t know what that means, we have to search
the whole field. So the location is very important, and a description if
you have one. What does it look like? Does it look like a bottle or
does it look like something else? If they can tell us what it looks
like, that helps put us in the ballpark of what we might be dealing
with. We don’t need or want anyone climbing on top of it to get the
exact measurements, just a general, generic description. It’s this big,
it’s this high, it’s this shape. Don’t touch it. Call us.”